I have been running a linux server for many years now. I have tried a few different flavors and I am trying out new ones all the time. Lately, I have been playing the .iso's in virtual machines. I have even run this server in a virtual machine and it runs well. I use a script for the .iso's that creates a vmware vmx file and runs it when you drag and drop an .iso onto it.

PlayISO.vbs script text follows just in case you are unable to download/run vbs files: